US Report: Nigerian Government Officials Engaged in Corrupt Practice with Impunity

 

The United States Government has decried the high level of corruption and lack of transparency in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government, saying the government officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.

The US disclosed this in its 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria, which was published on the website of US Department of State on March 11, 2020.

According to the report, “Although the law provides criminal penalties for the conviction of official corruption, the government did not implement the law effectively, and government officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government, including the judiciary and the security services.”

The US said though the constitution provides immunity from civil and criminal prosecution for the president, vice president, governors, and deputy governors while in office, there were numerous reports of government corruption during the year in review.

It noted that the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) holds broad authorities to prosecute most forms of corruption, while the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) extends only to financial and economic crimes.

The US report added that ICPC led a raid in August that resulted in the arrest of 37 federal road safety officers and five civilian employees on charges of extortion, adding that as of September 2019, the EFCC had secured 834 convictions during the year.

It added: "Although ICPC and EFCC anti-corruption efforts remained largely focused on low-and mid-level government officials, following the 2015 presidential election, both organisations started investigations into and brought indictments against various active and former high-level government officials."

The US said many of these cases were pending in court, but both the ICPC and the EFCC claimed that the delays were the result of a lack of judges and widespread practice of filing for and granting multiple adjournments.

The report noted that EFCC arrests and indictments of politicians continued throughout the year, implicating a significant number of opposition political figures and leading to allegations of partisan motivations on the part of the EFCC.

On financial disclosure, the report said the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act requires public officials, including the president, vice president, governors, deputy governors, cabinet ministers, and legislators (at both federal and state levels), to declare their assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) before assuming office and after leaving office.

It said the constitution also calls for the CCB to make declarations available for inspection by any citizen of the country on such terms and conditions as the National Assembly may prescribe, but noted the law does not address the publication of asset information, adding that violators risk prosecution, however, the cases rarely reached conclusion.

 

The report stressed further that in April 2019, Supreme Court Chief Justice, Walter Onnoghen, was convicted of falsely declaring his assets for failing to reveal money held in five foreign bank accounts, and was subsequently banned from holding public office for 10 years and ordered to forfeit the money in the five accounts.

The report noted that President Buhari had suspended Onnoghen over the charges of failing to disclose assets in January several weeks before the presidential election, but lamented that Buhari did not receive support for Onnoghen’s removal from two-thirds of the Senate or from the National Judicial Council (NJC) as the law requires.

The report also stated that the timing and process of Onnoghen’s suspension led many opposition candidates, lawyers, and civil society leaders to accuse President Buhari of meddling with the independence of the judiciary.

Meanwhile, the US also lamented that prison and detention centres’ conditions remained harsh and life threatening, as prisoners and detainees were reportedly  subjected to gross overcrowding, inadequate medical care, food and water shortages, and other abuses, and some of these conditions have resulted in deaths.

The report on its website also alleged that the government often detained suspected militants outside the formal prison system.

The federal government had in August passed a prison reform law and renamed the Nigerian Prison Services as the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCS).

According to the report, "Overcrowding was a significant problem. Although the total designed capacity of the country’s prisons was 50,153 inmates, as of July, they held 73,995 prisoners. Approximately 68 percent of inmates were in pretrial detention or remanded. Also, as of July, there were 1,489 female inmates.

 "Authorities sometimes held female and male prisoners together, especially in rural areas. Prison authorities often held juvenile suspects with adults. Most of the 240 prisons were 70 to 80 years old and lacked basic facilities. Lack of potable water, inadequate sewage facilities, and severe overcrowding have resulted in dangerous and unsanitary conditions."

The report added that for example, according to press reports,  Agodi Minimum Security Prison in Oyo State has 1,189 inmates despite a maximum capacity of 390.

It lamented that disease remained prevalent in cramped, poorly ventilated prison facilities, which had chronic shortages of medical supplies, stressing that inadequate medical treatment has caused many prisoners to die from treatable illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.

The United States pointed out that there were no reliable statistics on the total number of prison deaths during the year, but noted that prisoners and detainees were reportedly subjected to torture, gross overcrowding, food and water shortages, inadequate medical treatment, deliberate and incidental exposure to heat and sun, and infrastructure deficiencies that have led to wholly inadequate sanitary conditions that could result in death.